Gyesan was a hopeful priest who lived in the time of King Onjo and the founding of the small nation of Sipje, so named for the ten loyal servants who stood by the king. Together with Dochim the strong painter and Munmyeong the ill-fortuned poet, these three kinsmen served King Onjo as his faithful servants as he settled a new kingdom.

When first they arrived in this new bountiful country beside a great river, the people of Sipje enjoyed a bountiful harvest and were welcomed by the neighboring kingdom of Mahan. But they also came upon sacred lands haunted by the spirits of the dead, ancestors revered by the nomadic horse people of Malgal. The people of Sipje were bolstered by their own recent success at settling a new land and the hospitality of the Mahan people. Therefore, they did not contest the Malgal incursion that took from them this sacred land. 

This saddened Gyesan, but the youthful priest was yet full of hope and remained undismayed. Coming together in this moment of crisis, Gyesan, Munmyeong and Dochim swore an oath, whose words were written by Munmyeong, to do all that they could to ensure the prosperity of their people. Each worked toward this collective purpose in their own fashion, until in time the small country of Sipje grew into the mighty kingdom known as Baekje.

In the twilight of their lives, Dochim made a series of paintings to commemorate the events during his life and the lives of his kinsmen. Those who looked upon these paintings remembered all those who had followed King Onjo, his mother, and his brother Biryu when they first set out from Goguryeo to found their own kingdom. And they recalled the years of separation between the courts of King Onjo and King Biryu before the people were reunited under Onjo upon Biryu’s death.

Above all, they were mindful of the “earnest spirit,” as Munmyeong had called it, with which all the people had worked toward the growth and prosperity of the kingdom of Baekje, for their children, their children’s children, and future generations yet to come.